INFURIATING: Man Makes Up Insane “Addiction”… Gets Welfare for Life

Writing for Conservative Tribune, you see a lot over-the-top political schemers and two-bit con artists get what’s coming to them. Roger Tullgren, however, takes the cake as far as confidence men go, and so far he’s getting away scot-free.

Tullgren, 42, claims a crippling disability for which he has sought, and received, government assistance. The disability isn’t M.S., mental retardation, PTSD, or anything even halfway credible.

Tullgren is addicted to heavy metal music, or so he claims. And as an addict he has sought protection and assistance from the government.

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The heavily pierced and tattooed “addict” says his problem started around age two when, and I’m not making this up, he first heard Black Sabbath and was instantly addicted.

He claims his “addiction” (I’m just going to leave the quotation marks out going forward), compels him to attend numerous rock concerts each year, a circumstance that employers find very difficult to schedule around.

In a single year Tullgren managed to make it to 300 heavy metal concerts. Given that there are only about 250 working days in a year, you can see how Tullgren’s employers might find him difficult to work with.

Additionally, he acknowledges his body art and piercings can be offputting to some, making gaining and keeping employment even harder.

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Tullgren decided to turn to the only institution dumb enough to help someone with so many self-imposed limitations — his own government.

After years of pleading, he managed to convince Sweden, his nation, that addiction to heavy metal is a real thing, is a disability and is destroying his life (H/T Mad World News). We agree with that last part.

Once Swedish authorities agreed with Tullgren, he was able to obtain a doctor’s note which prevents potential employers from “discriminating” against him due to his “disability.”

The arrival of the note was a big day for Tullgren, who said, “Now I can turn up at a job interview dressed in my normal clothes and just hand the interviewers this piece of paper.” And of course, he gets a tidy sum from the government too to offset his “disability.”

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This entire sad episode raises more questions than we have space to address, but let’s take just two of them.

First, where is the tipping point? In other words, at what point do those suffering from laziness, shrouded in the garb of disease, begin scamming more from the government and employers than decent, hard-working people are putting in through taxes and diligence?

We don’t know precisely when we will hit that point, but it’s getting close (and has already been passed in places like Greece, Spain and Portugal).

Second, what happened to self-respect? Every now and then I flip through the TV channels and land on a black-and-white TV show or movie. Being a fan of classic Hollywood, I’ve noticed for years how often the theme of self-sufficiency came up on the small and silver screens.

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Dirt poor characters routinely eschewed charity, saying they weren’t going to become a burden on the community. How far we’ve come. Now, nearly half of Americans have found a “reason” to receive some sort of public assistance.

Tipping points and heavy metal addiction aside, one thing is certain: Western culture cannot continue on its present trajectory. Margaret Thatcher said “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” She was exactly right.

More than 40% of Americans receive some sort of government assistance, and the welfare paradises of Europe are quickly unravelling at the seams, as is Europe itself.

The only solution to the problem is for society to (re)embrace the Puritan work ethic, relearn why property rights matter, and regain a sense of self-respect and self-sufficiency. Our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents embraced these values.

It’s time we reintroduce them into today’s world.

Please share and like this article on Facebook and Twitter if you agree that the welfare state has become a bloated mess that threatens our way of life.